The Jules Horowitz Reactor (JHR) is a reference user facility to observe and understand material and fuel behaviour in extreme nuclear environment by reproducing the operational condition of the different power reactor technologies. JHR will be key for the nuclear international community by extending performances and assessing safety for nuclear power plants, also strengthening technology credibility and public acceptance. JHR will be effective in training new generations of scientists and engineers in the strategic field of nuclear energy also guaranteeing the high level of expertise needed in the staff of power plants in all steps of their lifecycle. JHR will also ensure the production of radioelements for nuclear medicine and for non-nuclear industry.

JHR project entered the ESFRI Roadmap in 2006 and the site preparation began at the Cadarache Research Centre in 2007. The first concrete step for the reactor’s foundations was poured in 2009, and the central containment structure was completed with the addition of a 105-tonne dome in late 2013. JHR will be built and managed in the framework of an international cooperation among several organizations bound by a Consortium Agreement (CA) signed in 2007 by CEA, French industrial partners EDF and AREVA, the EC together with research institutes from seven European Member States and Associated countries, UK, China and India, the CEA being the owner, nuclear operator and contracting authority of the facility. JHR is expected to start the Operation Phase by the beginning of the next decade.